The right bait is the key

Live trap

To live-trap a ground hog
(aka a woodchuck), bait the trap
with cantaloupe—the more
rotten, the better.

Photo provided by Getty

Michael Finfrock, Field Editor

“In the past seven years, I have
trapped well over 50 small animals.”
Finfrock says his success at doing his own pest control comes
down to researching appropriate
baits and trapping methods for each particular
animal. Local extension services, the “critter library”
on havahart.com, and state DNRs provide detailed
trapping and baiting information on their Web
sites.

In many areas, it’s illegal to relocate nuisance animals,
so check with local authorities. Also, according
to wildlife experts, more than 50 percent of relocated
animals don’t survive because they
don’t have an established shelter,
food source or
territory.

You Think You Have Problems?

I dived into our pool and came
face to face with a baby brown
snake, the second most lethal
snake in the world. Getting ready
to strike, it hissed at me and I
leapt out of the pool faster than I
had dived in! We got it out of the pool, and my
wife grabbed a spade and
chopped the snake into
three pieces with one
swing! Three hours
later, as she showed my
son the snake pieces, it
lifted its head and hissed at
him. An old man explained
this, saying, ‘Snakes only
die once the sun goes down.’

Lee Dashiell,
Associate Editor,Handyman Australia

Photo provided by Getty

The baby brown snake, found in Australia,
is one pest you should avoid trying to control on your own.

Bleach gets rid of drain flies

Drain fly

Tiny drain flies are harmless but can
gather in huge numbers in your
house. They’re sometimes mistaken
for fruit flies, but they actually live on
the gunky slime in your drainpipes.
Field Editor Lindsay McLeod told us
about a recent plague of drain flies in
her basement.

“An exterminator would have
charged $65 to come investigate plus
the cost of exterminating. Instead, I
poured a teaspoon of bleach down the
basement drain and the flies started
pouring out! Gross! So I poured a little
more bleach in, blocked the drain
hole, waited an hour and presto! No
more drain flies!”

If the bleach doesn’t work, experts
suggest starving the flies by cleaning
the gunky slime out of the drain with a long-handled brush.

Healthy turf fends off burrowing wasps

Burrowing wasps

“I have one heck of a yard nightmare…
huge mounds of dirt in our yard filled
with huge—and I mean huge—Jurassic-size cicada killer wasps. Their tunnels
have killed the grass, and they
come back every year.”

Jill Bucolo, Field Editor

Photo provided by Clarence Holmes

These large wasps live in all states east
of the Rockies. Male cicada killer wasps
are aggressive, but they don’t have
stingers. The females do but will only
sting if they feel threatened. These
wasps, which feed cicadas to their
young, typically nest in disturbed, sandy
areas and rarely infest healthy turf.

Adequate lime, fertilizer and frequent
watering promote a thick growth of turf
and can usually eliminate a cicada killer
wasp infestation in one or two seasons.
Mulch heavily around flower beds and
shrubs to cover sandy soil. For severe
infestations, call in an exterminator.

Control crickets with DIY sticky traps

Crickets

Matt Langford

A lot of cricket-like bugs had
taken up residence in my basement.
I’m concerned about
chemicals in bug sprays, so I came up with this simple trap—duct
tape. I set out a long strip of duct tape sticky side up in my basement.
When I returned a couple of days later, I found it had about 15
to 20 bugs attached. Since then, I have set tape out several times with the same
results.

Holy mole-y!

Mole control

“Get rid of the grubs that are their food source,”
suggests Field Editor Jerry Young. “Use a good
grub insecticide in the spring and again in
July and you’ll starve out the moles.”

Photo provided by Getty

Mole trap

Several Field Editors
recommend the Victor
Out O’ Sight Mole Trap
(available through our affiliation with Amazon.com). Visit amazon.com and type in this product’s
name and you’ll find
tons of helpful advice,
tips and tricks by customers
who have used this
trap successfully.

Even the “experts” don’t
agree on what works for
moles, so we can’t give
you any magic bullets.
But some of our readers
have real-world success
stories about controlling these pests.

Ed Stawicki, Field Editor

“I tried all of the typical mole
products and remedies and
finally the Wire Tek Easy-Set
Mole Eliminator Trap did the
trick,” says Field Editor Ed Stawicki.
“It traps the moles with a ‘scissor-effect.’
Very effective.”

Lights and sprinkler deter raccoons/foxes

Raccoon repellent

We have chickens in our backyard, so we
have a problem with foxes and raccoons.
I installed an electric fence, which
helped, but the biggest success was a
motion-activated light on the chicken
coop along with a motion-activated
sprinkler. It works quite well.

Repel ants with mint

Plant warfare

Discourage ants from entering your
home by planting a mint barrier around
your foundation, says Field Editor
Wayne Piaskowski.

“Over the past three years I’ve tried
ant bombs, spraying their nests out in
the yard. I even physically dug up a
stubborn colony near the street that
was three feet deep and wide. The mint
that I’ve planted around the house seems to be helping a lot.”

Banish bats with an exclusion door

Control bats

When Field Editor Chris Phelps
counted 70 bats exiting his attic one
evening, he knew he had
a problem. He quickly
discovered the solution—a bat exclusion
door—which lets bats
out but won’t let them
back in. One type of “exclusion door”
is a piece of netting that hangs a foot
below the bats’ exit point. You tape
the netting along the top and sides
but leave the bottom free. The bats
will slip out the open bottom, but
won’t be able to fly back in.

Photo provided by Getty

Bat Exclusion door

Bat exclusion doors help you control these pests on your own: Bats can exit but can't return.

Chris Phelps,Field Editor

“We installed the door,” says Phelps,
“and within a week the bats were
gone. I sealed the hole to keep them
out permanently. We also built a
couple of bat houses since bats eat mosquitos.”

DIY critter trap

Relocate problem animals

Craig Taylor, Field Editor

I’ve captured and relocated armadillos,
a raccoon, water
moccasins, pine
snakes, rats, you
name it. My trap of
choice is a big, empty
32-gallon plastic trash
can. Lay the can on its side and to the
critter it looks like a dark tunnel to
hide in. Force them in with a stick,
flip the can upright, put the lid on and
transfer. For the armadillos, I’ve
placed the trash can over them and
slid a flat board underneath and
flipped the whole thing upright.

A better mousetrap

Dooh!

John Williams, Field Editor

I propped a soda bottle up at about a 20-degree angle and baited
it with peanut butter. A day later I had a very scared mouse
trapped in my bottle. He was relocated to a field more suited to
his skill set.

A swipe of vegetable oil around the inside of the
lip will prevent the mouse from “slipping” away.

Gel ant bail targets tough areas

Ant control

Chemical ant baits are most effective for
grease-eating and sweet-eating ant species.
The key is to allow the ants to eat the
bait and take it back to kill the entire colony,
which may take several weeks. Gel ant
baits let you apply bait in hard-to-reach
areas such as behind appliances and in
cracks and crevices (keep all chemical baits
away from pets and kids).

New expanding foam has pest barrier

Bad taste repels pests

Great Stuff expanding foam seals
small holes and cracks. The newest
product—Great Stuff Pestblock (sold
at home centers)—contains a bitter
ingredient (but not a pesticide) that
discourages insect pests and rodents
from gnawing on the insulating foam
to gain entry to your home.

Strong scent keeps ants away

Bay leaves

How to get rid of woodpeckers

Fence them out

Drape plastic netting from the gutters and angle it toward
the house. Staple it to the siding. Then angle it to the
ground, about 3 in. away from the house. Staple it to
2x4s on the ground. Wrap the edges toward the house to
seal the entire area.

Woodpeckers sometimes peck holes in a house to get to
insects. But they also peck to attract mates and establish
their territory. And once they find a good spot on your home,
you’ll have to act fast or you’ll never get them to leave. However, it’s easy to do your own pest control.

Start by covering all woodpecker holes with metal flashing
or tin can lids (fix the actual damage later). Then hang shiny
deterrents like Mylar strips, magnifying mirrors or pinwheels
all around the repairs. If that doesn’t work, cover the entire
side of the house with plastic netting from a garden center. Once the woodpeckers leave, you can remove the netting.

Carpenter ants can wreak havoc

After college, I moved into my blind
grandfather’s decrepit house to care
for him. I kept seeing big ants in the
kitchen, but ant bait did nothing and
my grandfather insisted the ants
were from the houseplants I’d
brought with me. One afternoon, I
walked into the kitchen and headed
for the ancient refrigerator.

Suddenly, I noticed strange
movements on the walls. I looked
around and there were literally hundreds
of winged carpenter ants covering
the walls, counters and ceiling
of the kitchen. It was a scene from a
horror movie. Turns out carpenter
ants had been nesting behind the
refrigerator for years and had tunneled
through nearly every bit of
wood. The entire back of the house
was being held together by lath and
stucco.